Owen and Chris talk have resorted to the lowest levels of shillery and talk about Owen's new game, Sunshard:Embren, which is running a Kickstarter starting on November 19th. In all seriousness, if you liked Dark Age, it's worth giving this game a look.
Useful Links:
Riot Quest. Riot Quest. Riiiioootttttt Queeeesssstttt.
What more needs to be said?
Oh, I guess a little bit more! We're back, with a seasonal set of releases rather than appearing in pog form. Why? Beyond not having Privateer Press licensing off the majority of their IPs to Steamforged Games on our Keno cards, because we felt like it. Look forward to some episodes released in clusters as our time allows.
And remember, you can kill a wargame. You can't kill a podcast about dead wargames!
Come hear the tale of the game with more Marks than the C&C Music Factory. Chris and Owen cover the history of the first three versions of Warmachine/Hordes and discuss our thoughts on the future of the game. Also, there's a surprise at the end. I'm not just teasing that in the typical social media way. Really. I promise; no NordVPN promo.
Useful Links:
Riot Quest Teaser: The Fanzi-Jumping-the-Shark of Privateer Press
Billy: "Mom, I want Space Hulk"
Mom: "We have Space Hulk at home"
Home: ::Has Legions of Steel::
*****
Chris and Owen recount their time at CaptainCon 2023, playing dead games and talking to live gamers. Then, they discuss Global Games' tabletop miniature classic, Legions of Steel, better known as Canadian Space Hulk. Is this the Avril Lavigne of dungeon crawlers? Tune in to find out, eh.
Notes: At one point, Owen refers to Warhammer 40,000 as "Warmachine 40,000". He apologies to Games Workshop and Privateer Press fans everywhere.
Useful Links:
Dead Wargamers Society Discord
Legions of Steel @ Raybox Games
Clark Browning responds to the accusation that Legions of Steel is just Canadian Space Hulk
Andrew Galea of Gunmeister Games joins us to talk about the original version of Judgement, a 54 mm scale skirmish wargame. Recenrly, Judgement underwent a significant set of changes and became Judgement: Eternal Champions, a 32 mm scale wargame played on a hex mat released in conjunction with Creature Caster. Andrew walks through what's changed, what was left behind in version 1, and correctly identifies that deep dish "pizza" is the American equivalent of Vegemite.
Note 1: There's some weird audio interference on Andrew's audio, caused by either Outback noises or men at work (as in men working, not the band). We've removed as much of it as possible, but unfortunately, some still slips through. Chris also has some unusual clicking in his audio. We've tracked this down to his headphone cable hitting the mic or his processing of Taylor Ham during recording. A corrective and preventative action plan has been put in place to make sure this doesn't happen again.
Note 2: Around the 58 minute mark, we called Andrew our first international guest. Chris correctly pointed out that we had Ash Baker on, one of the leading drivers of Canada's GDP. Owen was under the impression that America had already annexed the nation of Tim Hortons. He attributes this error to his public school education.
Useful Links:
Judgement (version 1) Kickstarter Page: Useful resource for images of some of the original version of Judgement.
Judgement: Eternal Champions Kicktstarter Page: Useful information on the new version of Judgement.
It's that special time of year when we drink, give thanks, and record somewhat self-indulgent podcasts about broad wargames industry trends. It's the Dead Wargamers Society 2022 Holiday Special, featuring a special surprise guest. Is it Tom Cruise? Tom Hanks? You'll just have to listen to find out!
Some corrections: Owen referenced "DSG Games", when he should have referenced "DGS Games". He also said "iteratively" when he should have said "recursively". Don't drink and podcast, kids!
Helpful Links:
Special Holiday Introduction: "Canon and Variation" by Twin Musicom. Used under a creative commons license.
Record Scratch Sound Effect: "Record Scratch Sound Effect", a SoundEffectsFactory original production.
Vor: The Maelstrom; the other V:tM from the '90s.
Vor's a classic, goofy, science fiction wargame that was published by FASA. It's probably their best-known sci-fi wargame that's not Battletech. Chris hasn't played the game, Owen has and he tries to convince him to check it out. Hi-jinks ensue. Somewhere along the way, listener and friend-of-the-podcast Shay gets thrown under a bus. I won't say this is getting in formulaic, but a pattern is emerging...
Useful Links:
Iron Wind Metals Vor: The Maelstrom Store
Vor: The Maelstrom Online Army Builder
NeoSoviet Kommander That "Bears" a Striking Resemblance to a Khador Model (pun intended)
Growlers Concept Art (by Paul Bonner, not Adrian Smith as mentioned in the show - mea culpa!)
Reminisce about the Fall of 2020, as we revisit the classic French post-apocalyptic wargame (Eden) that we covered in Episode 2. It's Halloween season and what's more appropriate than a dead game (spoooOOOoooky) and a sequel? What's change about our thoughts on Eden in the past two years? Come find out!
Useful Links
Escape Board Game Kickstarter: Do a heckin' Eden dungeon crawler.
Burn Out Eden Expansion Kickstarter: Do a heckin' Eden game expansion/campaign.
Stygmata RPG Kickstarter: Do a heckin' Eden RPG
Bwaaaane Games Eden Card database: An on-line database for Eden profile and mission cards
The Dead Wargamer Gazette: Our free Substack newsletter
The long awaited follow-up to our original coverage of AEG's mass battle game set in the Legend of The Five Rings universe, Clan War. Clan War community champions Brian and Walter join us to provide some feedback and corrections on our original coverage of Clan War. Will Owen change his opinion about the game? Will Chris swear off cat girls and anime? Find out next time on Dragon Ball Ze... err... The Dead Wargamers Society! Also, find out this time.
Useful Links:
DWS Episode 18: Clan War - Our original coverage of the game, for the uninitiated.
Clan War Fans Facebook Group - Private Facebook group with a lot of useful Clan War information. A great place to meet other players.
The Push for Beta Garmon - A fan-led Horus Heresy campaign that Walter mentioned was a good time. For the discerning Space Marine aficionado.
Dead Wargamers Society Discord - For the discerning dead wargame aficionado.
Dead Wargamers Society Substack - Our semi-weekly, semi-news, semi-letter. If you want more Dead Wargamers Society content, sign-up for free musings on dead games and wargaming writ large.
We're back after a long hiatus! Owen is in his new home , Chris continues to live in the Land of Taylor Ham, and we have an episode about the mid-2000's sci-fi classic game: Urban War. Come for the jokes from 2005, stay for the wargaming history lesson.
Useful Links:
Dead Wargmer's Society Discord Server
Dead Wargamer Gazette Subtack Newsletter
Scotia Grendel's Urban War Page
Seb Games' Void 1.1 (Soon to Be 2.0) Page
Bryan CP Steele racks up his third appearance on DWS to talk about the Kickstarter for Warzone Eternal.
Note: On Friday May 27th, Res Nova announced that they were pulling down the Warzone Eternal Kickstarter to refocus their efforts. Res Nova owner Alex talks about the decision here. We wish them the best of luck with the project and look forward to backing it once it returns to Kickstarter.
Useful Links:
Warzone Eternal Kickstarter: See what we were talking about.
Tales From a Professional Nerd: Come watch Bryan nerd out about various topics, professionally.
Dead Wargamers Society Discord Link
Dead Wargamer Gazette: Join our Substack newsletter
We're back!
Our intrepid hosts return after 9 months of solitude. Hear about Chris' visceral hatred of Chicago cuisine because a deep dish pizza went all Al Capone on his finger. Owen's pretty much the same. We're pretty sure that's not in the "pro" column of things.
Useful Links:
Dead Wargamers Society Community Discord (now with permalink!)
Dead Wargamer Gazette - Our Substack Newsletter. Updated weekly!
Owen needs to go out and get some smokes. He'll be right back...
Just kidding and in all seriousness, we're sorry to do this, but Chris and I have a lot of "life" stuff going on right now and need to press pause on the podcast for a few months so we can, collectively, get married, sell a house, and potentially move. We're planning on being back around Thanksgiving. In the mean time, come hang out with us at ArmourCon and CaptainCon, post pics of minis from your favorite dead game on our Facebook page, and/or come chat in our Discord. Thanks to all of you who have been listening thus far; we hope to be back on the digital airwaves soon!
Useful Links:
Link to Our Discord
In the grim past of Games Workshop's intellectual property, there is only (narrative) war(gaming).
Avid narrative wargamer and hobby legend Dave Taylor joins us again to talk about the Games Workshop game Inquisitor and the fan movement it sparked called "Inq28". If you've seen that term around wondered where it came from, this episode is for you.
Also, we talk about seafood. If you're Australian, prepare to get mad.
Useful Links:
Inquisitor Rules PDFs on the The-Conclave.net - The freely available rules to the original Inquisitor, made available by the game's fans over on The-Conclave.net. If you're looking to talk to enthusiasts of the original game, this is the place to go!
Inq28 Subreddit - A great place to talk Inq28
Inquisimunda Fan Ruleset - A fan-made modification of the Necromunda rules to enable play with the kind of forces you'd find in Inquisitor
Dave Taylor Miniatures dot com - Home to the venerable Dave Taylor and, as the name would imply, his miniatures. Check out his "The Art of..." series, linked to here!
Spiky Rat Pack - Great Inq28 blog
Iron Sleet - Another great Inq28 blog
Example of a Gelida: the Frozen Expanse Inq28 Project - Google "Inq28 Gelida" to find many more great examples
What the heck's a Kryomek? Venerable wargamer David Moffit helps us answer this question, and more like "Was Kryomek a good game?" and "Do Kryomek's taste like chicken?" on this week's episode. Also, Mr. Moffit discusses his Dark Age Immortals community event. Come for aliens, stay for the dead games!
Useful Links
Scotia Grendel Website: Current owners of Kryomek, with the rules as free PDFs available for download.
Kryomek Space Time Interstice: Small, but passionate, Facebook group for Kryomek players.
Community Events
Dark Age After Dark @ DragonFall 2021: October 23rd in Lake Geneva, WI
"We can get this game picked back up; Blood Bowl did it!" is a refrain most players of dead games have heard before. But what did the Blood Bowl community do to get GW to pick the up after 7 years of no support? Nate Beem, president of the NAF (Blood Bowl tournament organization and very large Blood Bowl community) joins us to tell the story of how Blood Bowl became the most famous "resurrected" dead wargame and shares some tips on how other communities can move towards that.
Useful Links:
The NAF: International Blood Bowl tournament community, of which Nate is the president of.
4 Diamonds Cup Blood Bowl tournament: Large Blood Bowl tournament for charity coming up on the East Coast. The rules pack can be found here.
Dead Wargamers Society Discord: Come join our community and talk about your favorite dead wargames!
Did you know that AEG made a miniature wargame to go with the Legends of the Five Rings collective card game and RPG? Well, keep it on the down-low. We can't promote this episode too hard or we'll get sued by the Olympics.
Come learn about one of Chris' favorite games and an interesting bit of wargaming history.
Useful Links:
AEG L5R Clan War Facebook Group: Group with all the game's rules as free PDFs.
Dead Games Society's Unboxing of the Clan War Starter: What's in the box? WHAT'S IN THE BOX? Great Youtube channel unrelated to us, but swimming in the waters. Definitely check out his other videos!
The summer of Rackham continues with a discussion on one of our all-time favorite games, Confrontation. Kyle Gibson, moderator of the Confrontation 3.5 Fanatics Facebook group page and owner of Temple of the West studios, came by to help us give players unfamiliar with Confrontation a quick overview of the game. He also had some great insights into the potential future for Confrontation!
We'll probably talk about Conf more in the future, but we wanted to give listeners the basics of the game so they can decide if something they'd be interested in checking out.
Useful Links:
Temple of the West - Kyle's studio, which is putting out some great models (the Legends line) for Relic Blade. They'll also be dropping some inspired-by Confrontation models soon!
Confrontation Pils - A great resource for Confrontation cards and rules
Under the Mountain - A blog with some excellent studio shots of all of the Rackham miniatures
Confrontation 3.5 Fanatics Facebook Group - A great place to go and talk Confrontation!
Dead Wargamers Society Discord - Come chat with us on Discord!
Bonus episode!
Chris and I started recording episodes that aren't tied to specific dead wargames that we'll release as either bonus episodes or put out in cases where we can't keep to the biweekly schedule for some reason (e.g., in cases of personal emergencies or guests that have to reschedule). We're calling these episodes "Sideboards", not giving them episode numbers, and using different intro/outro music. We still try to keep these tied to dead wargames (don't worry, we're moving into movie reviews or anything!), but they will won't be as tightly focused on a single dead game as our other episodes.
For this Sideboard, we talk to Seppy Yoon of Fight in a Box Games, who many US listeners probably know from conventions. We talk game design, trends in gaming, and Chris makes an impassioned plea for all listeners, no, all citizens of the world, to see the Ron Perlman classic "Mutant Chronicles". OK, I guess maybe we are toeing into movie reviews.... I blame Chris.
Useful Links
Fight in a Box Games - Seppy makes some really fun party board games!
Mouse Cheese Cat Cucumber Kickstarter Late Pledges - If you liked what you head about the game, there's still a chance to get a late pledge in.
Sovranti - A great digital platform to play board games on, including some from Fight in a Box Games.
OFPG AAPI History Month Episode ft. Seppy Yoon - I really liked this episode covering an important topic!
Are you ready to Dust off some older plastic minis and play a pulp sci-fi wargame where monkeys in power armor and space zombies go toe-to-toe? Sounds like you're ready for some AT-43! Greg Boisbelaud (ex-Rackham, currently running DUST USA) joins us to talk about this under-appreciated Rackham classic.
Sorry for the rough cuts at the end of the episode; we talked for a long time but tried to keep the final episode length reasonable, while still maintaining something resembling a normal conversational flow.
****
Useful Links:
Esoteric Order of Gamers AT-43 Page: All the rules, background, images of models, etc. A one-stop-shop for all your AT-43 needs, where everything in that shop costs $0
Pinterest Page of Martin Grandbarbe's Painted Miniatures: As referenced by Greg in the show
DUST USA Homepage: Support Greg's current endeavor with AT-43's creator, Paolo Parente. Link goes to the page containing the campaign referenced during the show
DWS Discord: Come hang out with us on, as the kids say, "the social medias"
